In today’s podcast episode, we explore what happens when social media moves from our phones to our living room TV screens, what to make of Meta’s new “Instagram for TV” app, and which formats social media companies might develop beyond short-form video to capture TV audiences. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with analysts Marisa Jones and Emmy Liederman. Listen anywhere, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.
Podcast ad budgets tilt toward brand building: 63% of Q1 spend went toward brand awareness, as marketers trade quick conversions for long-term equity.
Anthropic tops OpenAI: A $965 billion valuation and $47 billion annual revenue run rate show enterprise AI can outpace consumer chatbots.
Adults 35 and older made up 62% of Reddit's 124.5 million US unique visitors in March 2026, with 25-to-34-year-olds the largest single cohort at 29.6 million, according to an April 2026 Comscore report.
Google builds policy checks into ad creation: Real-time reviews flag errors instantly, speeding approvals and cutting delays for time-sensitive campaigns.
B2B AI ambitions outpace readiness: CMOs want AI visibility, yet fragmented metrics and thin expertise stall results.
Pop Mart's US site/app traffic crashed from a peak of 2.6 million unique visitors in June 2025 to just 285,000 in March 2026, an 89% drop in nine months as Labubu-mania faded, according to an April 2026 Comscore report.
At The Lead Summit in New York City, executives across retail, fashion, and ecommerce repeatedly returned to the same challenge: How to modernize through AI, personalization, and connected customer experiences without losing the identity and emotional connection that made consumers care in the first place.
Marketplace and media growth help counter macro headwinds.
Healthcare membership buyers tend to skew younger, but a new GoodRx offering could tap a broader market of consumers losing coverage while still needing routine care.
Off-price and dollar stores gain share across income tiers.
The retailer is expanding its hardware assortment and launching its first home-goods brand in five years.
As zero-click discovery grows, consumers are making purchase decisions without ever visiting a brand’s site. Traditional attribution models are struggling to keep up with where influence really happens.
Reducing friction and increasing buy button visibility could help the wallet compete with rivals.
Comps sales fell 1.1% in Q1, its best quarter in years, but identity questions linger.
Retail media gets interoperable: Walmart Connect plugs into Yahoo and Magnite, bringing purchase data to open CTV workflows.
Consumers can use stablecoins for remittances, but banks still need to create compelling insights for their everyday use
Growth owes largely to trading, wealth management, and capital markets activity rather than a broad rebound in core banking growth.
Growth owes largely to trading, wealth management, and capital markets activity rather than a broad rebound in core banking growth.